Lapeer West boys basketball team leaning on experience and 'basketball IQ' to contend for league title

Lapeer West senior Zeshawn Jones-Parker (right) has played four games this season and continues to gain strength after returning from a knee injury. (Griffin Moores | MLive.com)

Lapeer West senior point guard Cullen Turczyn starts a drill as coach Chuck Mahoney looks on during a recent practice at Lapeer West High School. (Griffin Moores | MLive.com)

Cullen Turczyn drives to the basket against Zeshawn Jones-Parker during a recent practice at Lapeer West High School. The two seniors are key contributors for the Panthers this season. (Griffin Moorse | MLive.com)

LAPEER, MI -- When Lapeer West senior point guard Cullen Turczyn looks around the gym, he likes what he sees.

He likes all the familiar faces.

“We’ve got more basketball experience on this team than we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Turczyn said as a practice was wrapping up at Lapeer West High School. “We’re not the most athletic team, but our experience playing basketball and our knowledge of the game makes up for that. We’ve got three seniors coming back and we’ve got a good group of juniors that allow us to go pretty deep off our bench, so that’s helped us out to get some wins early on.”

Senior forward Zeshawn Jones-Parker missed the first three games of the season and is slowly but surely returning to form as he continues to recover from a torn meniscus suffered during football season. Jones-Parker is averaging 12.75 points per game -- playing limited minutes in four games this season -- and scored a season-high 18 in the Capac game. He says he’s just scratching the surface of being back to full strength.

“I honestly haven’t been able to contribute much at all yet, it’s been mostly Cullen out there getting it done each night, but I’m getting closer,” said Jones-Parker, who stayed behind after practice to continue working and make up for lost time. “Cullen has done a lot of the scoring for us early, but we’ve got a whole group of guys that can go out there and get after it… The juniors on our team have been playing together forever, so that’s really helped the flow of things.”

Although Jones-Parker has yet to return to his original form, his presence has added some needed athleticism to the Panthers’ lineup and changed the dynamic of the team according to Turczyn.

“Absolutely, it’s a huge help,” Turczyn said. “It’s simple in that having Zeshawn on the bench is just not a good thing. We need him on the court and we’re all happy he’s back.”

The goal now for the Panthers is to build off their strong start and stay in contention for the Flint Metro League title. Fenton and Swartz Creek are the frontrunners in the league, but the Panthers believe they belong in the discussion.

“That’s our goal,” Lapeer West coach Chuck Mahoney said. “We’d like to believe that we can compete with those teams. The kids believe they can and we’ve got confidence in what we can do, but it’s not going to be easy.”

Lapeer West has yet to face Swartz Creek this season, but lost a hard-fought game to Fenton, 65-56, Dec. 17.

“We went three quarters with Fenton and were right with them,” Turczyn said. “They went on a spree in the fourth, I think it was a quick 9-0 run or something, and we just couldn’t come back from that, but we proved to ourselves that we could compete.”

In order to contend for a league title, the Panthers know they’ll have to bring their best effort on a nightly basis.

“There are no gimmies in the Flint Metro League,” Mahoney said. “We’ve got a tough week coming up with Holly and Ortonville Brandon, and those are two games that will be telling. There’s a lot of balance in the league and teams are at a higher level they I think they’ve been in a while, so we’ve got to be ready to play every game.”

Fortunately for the Panthers, they’re smart enough to know that.

“Our basketball IQ is the strength of our team,” Turczyn said. “We’ve got guys that have been around and playing smart is what is going to allow us to be successful.”